The police raid in Brimingham opens a worrying new front for the banking community in the fight against organised card crime. The introduction of Chip & PIN has been a big suceess in stamping out fraud on the high street.

However, it now appears that the criminal community is coming to terms with the new security measures and finding ingenious new ways to beat the system. Word in security circles has it that gangs have developed tiny devices which can be secretly inserted inside the check-out card readers to unscramble codes and reveal customers' pin numbers.

The breakthrough assumes some collusion as the readers have to be phyically removed from the premises, dismantled and returned to the shop in order for the scam to work.

So far 30 shops have fallen victim to the scam, say police. Check out this report in local paper the Newham Recorder for an account of a raid on shoppers at a branch of Somerfield in Forest Gate.